Staring
by WickedGame
Summary: HeeroDuo. Chibi pilots. AU. Small, oneshot ficlet about a staring contest gone wrong.


Title: Staring

Author: WickedGame

Genre: fluff

Pairing: 12

Rating: G

Warnings: not beta read, chibi pilots, AU

Notes: Sprung up on me while my kids were having a staring contest.

The day care play room was a mess, as usual. But it wasn't the usual crayon or paints mess. No, this time the magic mess was chocolate. The kids had gotten some treats for Halloween and Victoria, their sitter, was stupid enough to tell the parents it would be okay if they brought candy to day care.

Dorothy had bubblegum in her hair, while Relena's was sticky with gummi residue from the pile of worms sitting in her hand. Wufei was wearing a huge smile of peanut butter and chocolate while Zechs had what looked suspiciously like bubblegum all over his face in strands.

"Oh good god," Victoria said, wanting nothing more than to go back out the door, lock it behind her, and leave the children in their mess until their parents arrived.

But Victoria didn't think that the parents would appreciate that so she tried to settle things down and get everyone to pay attention to something else other than sugary candy.

Luckily it was little Duo who provided the distraction. He and Trowa were sitting on the floor, staring at each other. Victoria dragged all the kids over to the pair while she tried to straighten things up a little. When she was done, Trowa and Duo were still staring at one another and she began to get curious herself.

Ten minutes later, Trowa finally glanced to the side at his neighbor, Quatre, and Duo cheered at his fortune. Trowa got out a packet of chocolate candies and gave them to Duo before going to stack some blocks.

All the kids wanted a try at staring Duo down, to see if he could beat them. And Duo was nice about it, letting them keep their candy if they only had a little of it to give. Victoria looked over at her newest charge, Heero, and beckoned him over with her finger.

"Wanna give it a try, Heero?" she asked, and Duo nodded eagerly with a smile.

It looked like he wanted to. Victoria sensed he was lonely and needed friends. But for some reason, he was denying himself that pleasure and she didn't think it was healthy. His eyes went back and forth between her and Duo and then he spoke in a quiet, level voice.

"I don't like this game."

Victoria let him go and watched as Duo sniffled, just a little. Victoria walked over to Heero and sat down next to him.

"Heero, is there anything wrong? Do you need to talk?"

His blue eyes looked at her with a slight knowing and a guilty need. "I don't mind the game. Not really."

"Then why didn't you want to play with Duo?" Victoria asked, clearly confused.

"His eyes are too pretty, and I don't like losing," Heero said as he rolled a ball in front of him. "It wouldn't take much for him to make me look away."

Victoria backed away a little, amazed at Heero's insight. She sighed and left the kids to their playing, cleaning chocolate up all the way.

Duo connected the dots that were the small moles on his lover's back as they lay in bed on a lazy Sunday morning. His hand sneaked to the bedside table, grabbed a small, chocolate candy and popped it into his mouth.

"Candy this early?" the low voice asked, amused.

"Shut up. I could eat these things all day long," Duo mused, even as he pursed his lips. "Do you remember day care? Miss Victoria always made a mistake of not telling parents to send candy with us there."

His lover smiled. "She was the first person to know I was in love with you."

Duo rolled over his partner until he was on the other side of him and they were face-to-face.

"We were only four!" Duo exclaimed.

Heero smiled and brushed a long section of hair from Duo's face. "I knew the day I met you that I loved you. I didn't know what it meant, or what the implications were, but I loved you."

"You hated me! You wouldn't even play staring contest with me!" Duo laughed.

"I couldn't play staring contest with you," Heero said, quite serious all of a sudden.

Duo stopped laughing and waited for the rest.

"The very first thing I noticed were your eyes. So big and bright! And I knew, if I played staring contest with you, that I might end up telling you how pretty you were, even if I didn't know you don't call guys 'pretty'." Heero kissed Duo's jaw and pecked him on the nose. "Once we were older the only thing I could hope was that you didn't notice how I felt whenever I looked at you."

Duo rolled on top of Heero and pillowed his head on Heero's chest. "Couldn't have been anything less than the way I felt about you, you know?"

Heero nodded and kissed the top of Duo's head. "I know that now, but back then I was just like me at four. Not wanting to look at you for fear of having everything else show."

Duo smiled and kissed Heero's chest, rubbing his face against smooth skin. He grabbed a chocolate from the night stand an placed it in Heero's navel. He propped himself up and looked into Heero's deep blue eyes.

"First one who blinks has to bottom," he said, the room around him disappearing.


End file.
